DRO: When you
had the rainouts at Indy this season, there
were hundreds of legends or near legends there
and yet ESPN closed up shop and left. Was there
no thought of getting some of those drag racing
legends together or going to John Mazzarella's
motorhome and listen to a great bench racing
session amongst those guys in order to document
the history of the sport at Indy?

MD: You gotta
refresh my memory on how that happened, cause
it got rained out. Here's what happens on a
rain out - a lot of people don't understand,
if it calls for a chance of rain. Normally we
don't tape until the last session on Saturday
to do our qualifying show, or we don't start
voicing it over. We'll tape all the runs and
we'll use them as highlights, once we start
going on camera and voicing everything over.
If there's a possibility of a rain out, we'll
start voicing over and doing an actually show
on Friday qualifying in case there's a rain
out.

So we have X amount of programming that we
have to fill for that weekend. So there's a
lot of time that will get thrown away because
of programming changes and weather changes.
I'm not really familiar with how we get. . .
. I remember we got called on Sunday night and
I don't remember. . .we did the qualifying show
and then we did run the previous years and then
I think we cut back in and usually we'll have
Marty (Reid) or whoever in the booth and we'll
cut back in saying, 'This is a show from last
year, we're still on hold waiting for the rain
or the decision,' and then we show last year's
show.

DRO: I guess I'm
asking about doing things differently. When
you have an opportunity to sit and talk with
the Snake, Connie, the Greek or some of those
legends to document history or sit there with
Shirley. Has that ever crossed any body's mind
before everybody's gone? Would it interest you?

MD: Sure it would,
I'm a fan of the history of the sport. It would
definitely interest me. One of the things and
that I'm not real up on is the way a rain show
goes and the schedule the way it's so basically
messed up and the way it has to be put together
and deciding what you have to do. It's a lot
more hectic than just a regular show. You actually
have more opportunity as far as with the scheduling
during the race to shoot the stuff than you
do on a rain show, because everything's constantly
changing during a rain show, and just

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reacting
to different changes. I mean, you have a general
plan about what you're going to do but those
plans change depending on announcements from
the weather.

DRO: Do you talk
to your dad much?

MD: Ahhhh, not
much anymore - we've kind of had a little falling
out over the years and my dad remarried and
it's just one of those things. He's a tough
guy

DRO: Did that
make you tougher?

MD: Did it make
me tougher? You know, I don't know, maybe.

DRO: Or did it
make you NOT want to be that way?

MD: A little of
both, I think. I mean, there's only two things
in my life -- racing and my family. I don't
care about anything else. I don't gamble, I
don't drink, I don't smoke; I just like drag
racing and I like my family and mountain biking
when I'm home and that's about it. I'm a boring
kind of guy. My Dad's been known to have a temper,
and a lot of people think I'm really easy going,
but I have the same temper he does, it's just
my fuse is a lot longer than his. But when it
does blow up, it's the same thing; yelling,
screaming, throwing things, wanting to kill
everybody and we basically look stupid, which
most people do when they go crazy and yell and
scream. But I've tried to -- over the years
after seeing his temper -- I've tried to say,
I really don't want to do that; I want to be
a little more objective.

I've always tried to take the stand that I
won't go out and start any sh*t but I'm not
going to take any. If someone gets in my face,
I'm gonna stand up, but if it's something that's
menial, if it's not directly involved with my
life, racing or my family, then I could care
less. Somebody can say what they want, I'm just
going to walk away and go do my thing, 'cause
I'm not going to waste my time with it. Maybe
that's how I'm a little bit different. My Dad's
mellowed out as he's gotten older, which we
all do.